Scribbled notes / Late nights / Early mornings / Lilting author signatures still fresh inside new novels / The mesmerising experience of prose read aloud by the author who penned it / Black coffee / Dead phone batteries / Lightbulb books hanging overhead / Sitting in the green room watching authors prepare for their sessions / The sunny sky and glittering water almost mocking my decision to sit inside theatres all day / Getting lost in the winding streets of Sydney / Wise and kind advice from the lovely Jennifer Byrne / Audience questions that are monologues / Media pass like a magical key / Nights spent at the Chaser’s Empty Vessel in the cavernous Pier 2-3 / Anita Heiss’ tearful recounting of the Bolt case / Jonathan Biggins’ derisive tirade against the worth of bloggers – ‘If I need a root canal, I don’t go to see someone with a dentistry blog.’ Sigh / That strange man who insisted at two sessions that Malcolm Turnbull and Godwin Grech had something to do with a plane going down on the Kokoda track / Meeting Tara Moss, Kristen Tranter, Jason Steger, Susan Wyndham, Chris Taylor, Charlotte Wood, Paddy O’Reilly, Deborah Forster / The Harbour Bridge a magnificent looming presence in the distance / My suitcase arriving home three kilos heavier from the weight of new books to consume.